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Wrestling: Perham 2nd, NY Mills 3rd at Barrel O' Fun Invite

Perham's Jesse Hein and New York Mills' Landyn Saewert lock up duringthe heavy-weight championship of the Barrel O' Fun Invitational in Perham last week. Hein took the heavyweight title by pinning Saewert in 4:33.1 / 3

New York Mills' Shane Novak earned the 103-pound title with a 6-4 decision over NL-S's Ben Henle.2 / 3

Perham senior Sam Warne was honored before the BOF championship matches for being ac-cepted to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. Warne pinned Chase Austvold of NL-S to win the 125-pound BOF title. It was Warne's 171st career win, tying him with Tyler Doll for 2nd on the school's all-time wins list. Philip Moenkedick holds the PHS school record with 190 career wins.3 / 3

The Perham wrestling team did all they could to knock off No. 10-A New London-Spicer as the champs of their own Barrel O' Fun "Monsters of the Mat III".

When the tournament wrapped-up Saturday night at Prairie Wind Gymnasium, both the Jackets and NL-S had four individual champi-ons. But NL-S had four run-ner-ups and four more fin-ishing in third place, com-pared to Perham's one runner-up and one third place finish.

As a result, NL-S, led by former Yellowjacket wrestler Jair Toedter, walked away with their second BOF title with 228.5 points.

Perham finished in second with 191.5 points, followed by New York Mills in third with 167.0.

Perham head coach Robb Moser said he would have liked to see his team do a little better in the wrestle back rounds. The conse-quence was having five wrestlers in the fifth place matches.

Leading the way for Perham were their four title winners: Luke Sailer (112), Sam Warne (125), Charlie Schmitz (152) and Jesse Hein (HWT.).

New York Mills lone champion was at 103 pounds with No. 2 Shane Novak.

At 112, Sailer had a pin, followed by a pair of 2-0 victories, including a 2-0 win over New York Mills' Tommy Selander in the title match. Selander had a pin and tech fall win to get to the 112-pound championship.

Warne cruised to the 125-pound title with three pins, including a fall in 4:57 over NL-S's Chase Austvold in the title match. Austvold is ranked No. 7 at 119 pounds. Warne is No. 2 at 125.

At 152 pounds, Charlie Schmitz, the Outstanding Wrestler of last year's BOF Tournament, had a pin and a pair of decision victories to get the title. Schmitz is cur-rently ranked No. 4 at 160 pounds.

In a battle of big men at heavyweight, Perham's Jesse Hein, ranked No. 9 in Class AA, earned a pin in 4:33 over New York Mills' Landyn Saewert in the championship match. Saewert is ranked No. 2 in Class A.

Perham's lone runner-up was Ben Brill at 215 pounds. Besides Selander, Novak and Saewert, Michael Meyer fin-ished in second place for New York Mills at 130 pounds.

(Full tournament brackets are available online at eotillustrated.com).

Mills over Osakis

NY Mills improved their dual meet record to 5-4 last Thursday with a 41-24 win at Osakis in a Park Region Con-ference match-up.

The Eagles were able to build a 15-0 lead in the first three matches. A stretch of four-straight wins increased Mills lead from 19-9 to 34-9 before Osakis won three of the final four matches.

The Silverstreaks won last years dual, 42-29, and went on to finish second at the PRC Tournament.

Hwy. 10 battle

Perham and New York Mills will go head-to-head tonight (Jan. 14) at the Mills Sports Center. Varsity matches are scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.

The Yellowjackets hold a 29-24 all-time edge in dual meets between the Hwy. 10 rivals, and have won the last four in a row over the Eagles. New York Mills last dual meet win over Perham came in December, 2004.

Perham will follow that dual by traveling to Bemidji on Jan. 16 for the Rick Lee Invitational Tournament. Individual matches are scheduled to start at 10 a.m.